10-10-80

Pastor Keith’s 10, 10, 80 Principles

To understand financial freedom you first need to understand and believe that God wants you to prosper. Many people out there in the Christian movement believe that the prosperity message is a false teaching or that it is only about money. So before we go any further you must determine in your heart does God want you to prosper or not. I believe the best way to understand this issue is to take one extreme and compare it to the other extreme.

If God wants you to prosper, then you should have a job, a home, a loving family, good health, and all the other things associated with prosperity. If God does not want you to prosper then the opposite is true. You will not have a job, a home, a loving family, or good health. You will need to decide which way you believe before you can continue.

The Bible states in 1 Peter 5:8 that the devil is a lion roaming around looking for someone that he may devour. 1 Timothy 6:10 states that the love of money is the root of all evil. Jesus states that you cannot love money and God. Luke 6:13 I believe all of this is true. If you serve God and apply the tithes and the law of sowing and reaping in a hope that you will receive more money you will be sadly left wanting.

However, in Joshua 1:8 study this Book of Instruction continually. Meditate on it day and night so you will be sure to obey everything written in it. Only then will you prosper and succeed in all you do. In Proverbs 10:22 the blessing of the Lord makes a person rich, and he adds no sorrow with it. Both of these verses say that you will succeed in everything that you do and that God wants you to be rich/wealthy. Where we lose it, is when we focus on the money aspect. The prosperity message or the belief that God wants you to be rich/wealthy, includes money but there is so much more. God wants you to have a loving family. God wants you to have a good paying job. God wants you free from sickness and disease. Basically, God wants you to be happy and succeed in everything that you do.

While Jesus was on the earth He taught us with what we refer to as parables. 16 of the 38 parables we have in the books of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, were directly tied to you and your prosperity. That is 42% of the recorded teachings that Jesus talked about was in reference to prosperity.

In the parable about the talents, Luke 19:12-27, we see that the servant that did the most with what he was given, was given more responsibility and prosperity by God. Because of his faithfulness God even rewarded him by giving him the money that the unfaithful servant had. Which would be considered a “bonus check.”

Dede and I, were just like you and many other good Christians. We were spinning our wheels trying to get ahead and live the American dream. At one point in time we had 4 home businesses that consumed hours of our time and the majority of our financial resources. Unfortunately, by trying to keep up with the Joneses we got thousands and thousands of dollars in debt. In fact at one point our monthly interest bill was around $1000. It was not until we were able to break free from the manipulations of the devil and what the world says we should live like, that our financial situation began to change.

My goal with teaching you the 10, 10, 80 principles is to help you break free from the devils hold, and to hopefully steer you away from making the same horrible mistakes that we made. The following information may be new to you. I encourage you to seek God on everything you are about to read. Look up the verses for yourself. Meditate on them so that you can believe that it is correct. God will give you the right path and understanding for you. James 1:5 if you need wisdom, ask our generous God, and he will give it to you. He will not rebuke you for asking.

The First 10 And The Most Important

Tithing. Yes tithing is the most important thing you can do with your money!!!!!

In fact, we can see that it was the taking of the tithe that cast Adam out of the Garden of Eden. Genesis 2:16-17 But the Lord God warned him, “You may freely eat the fruit of every tree in the garden except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If you eat its fruit, you are sure to die.” As we see from this verse God gave Adam and Eve everything else in the garden. All they had to do was leave one section alone. With our tithes, God asks the same thing. Give to Him the 10% and do whatever you want with the remaining 90, that is yours

Through reading the Bible we see a history of people falling into the same trap that Adam had. Malachi 3:10 bring all the tithes into the storehouse so there will be enough food in my Temple. If you do,” says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, “I will open the windows of heaven for you. I will pour out a blessing so great you won’t have enough room to take it in! Try it! Put me to the test!

As we see in Malachi 3:10 God asks for us to bring the whole tithe, or the whole 10%. If we do he will pour out blessings upon our lives. In fact in this statement he states: “put me to the test.” This is the only place in the Bible that God states that.

I’ve been told by good Christians that the tithe is an Old Testament practice and that we live under grace. Well, again we see a lie from the devil. The Bible says Hebrews 13:8 God is the same today, yesterday, and forever. Mark 12:41-44 Jesus sat down opposite the place where the offerings were put and watched the crowd putting their money into the temple treasury. Many rich people threw in large amounts. 42 But a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins, worth only a few cents. 43 Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. 44 They all gave out of their wealth; but she, gave out of her poverty, and put in all she had to live on.”

We can see that Jesus is the same today, yesterday, and forever, and because of that we can see that he is still watching what we are putting in the church buckets.

It is also important to understand the difference between the tithes and the offering.

Tithes = 10%. It comes from a Hebrew word that literally means a levy of one tenth of something. The tithe goes to your home church and no place else.

Offerings are basically anything that you give over the first 10% (Tithe). Offerings can go to your home church or to any organization that you wish.

Luke 6:38, “Give and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.” In this verse we see that God wants to bless us so much that the blessings pour out all over your lap. From our teachings above blessings is not strictly monetary it is things that money can buy and things that money can’t buy. I believe the key to this passage is the part that states for the measure you use will be measured back to you. If you gave God nothing, nothing is what you will get back. But if you give, the measure that you give, will be given back to you.

Tithing is probably the most difficult principle for people to understand and to do. The devil tries to steer you away from it at all cost. He knows what happens when you follow the tithing principle. Dede and I battled with the tithing principles just like you may be doing right now. We knew what our bills were and we knew what the money coming in was. In the natural we could not comprehend how giving 10% to the church was going to help us. Fortunately for us, we took a leap of faith and put our trust in God. As we tithed, God opened up doorways and opportunities that were hidden to us. Yes, tithing can be scary, but I encourage you to start. If the whole 10% is too much. Ask God to reveal to you a level that you can start at. Pray over it. Ask God to open up your hearts to increase the tithe from that starting point to the full 10%. Ask God to reveal the blessings that the tithe releases as stated in Malachi 3:10.

The Second 10%. You’re Storehouses

Ask yourself these questions.

1. How’s your financial life going?

2. Is it moving along as well as you think it should?

3. Do you feel like you are in a fight to just get by?

4. Are you confident about your future? Do you have doubt?

5. Have you lowered your aspirations and settled for mediocrity?

The Lord will command the blessing on you in your storehouses and in all to which you set your hand and He will bless you in the land which the Lord your God is giving you. Deuteronomy 28:8 NKJV

Are you ready for a radical new way of thinking?

Do you believe that you are only one revelation away from a finance miracle?

Let’s look in more detail about Deuteronomy 28:8. The Lord will command a blessing on your storehouses. Storehouses is plural meaning the Lord wants you to have more than one storehouse. Well you may ask what is a storehouse? A storehouse could be your bank accounts, your 401(k), IRA, life insurance policy, or anything else that allows you to put something into it. Take a look at another aspect of that first sentence and Deuteronomy. The Lord will command a blessing. Meaning if you have a storehouse God is going to command a blessing upon it. He also states that He will bless everything you put your hand to and the land which He is giving you.

Think about what you are putting your hands to and the land that the Lord has given you. What does that mean to you? Where are your storehouses? Do you even have any?

For Dede and I, the first step to fulfilling Deuteronomy 28:8 was to open up some storehouses. Believe it or not, at first it was just an envelope that we put in a drawer. Whenever we had extra money we would put it in that envelope. From the envelope we opened a savings account. After the savings account we opened up a 401(k). At first, we hardly put anything into it. We had to make some spending cuts, keep control of our finances, and pay off a lot of debt. But with each step we were able to contribute more to the storehouses.

1 Chronicles 22:14 says “Now, behold, in my trouble, I have prepared for the house of the Lord 100,000 talents of gold; 1,000 talents of silver; and of brass and iron without weight; for it is in abundance, timber also and stone have I prepared,”

If you look in the margins of King James Bible or even the Strong Concordance you will see that the word “trouble” also means “poverty”. In other words, David started saving money and supplies to build the Temple for God, even when it wasn’t convenient or easy to do.

The verse in Chronicles states “in my troubles I have prepared…” We can see from this God knows you might have some troubled times. But in our troubles He wants to bless us. It took many years for Dede and I to get completely out of debt, and take hold of the storehouse principles. We had some good times and some bad times. As we all know things break, wear out, or just go bad. But as our storehouses have grown, when unexpected issues arise we have been able to pay cash for everything. To date, we have quite a few storehouses. And because we have something in them God is able to command them to be filled.

Many years ago I read an article about a study a college had done. They concluded that if an average person, making minimum wage, started contributing 10% of their income to a 401(k) at age 16 and continued on. By the time that person reached 45 years old, due to the law of compounding interest, that person would be able to retire as a millionaire.

Now you may be older than 16, but don’t worry, the key to everything is just starting.

“We sow to the future and reap from the past” Edwin Lewis Cole

Last But Not Least The 80%

This is the easiest one. This is the money that you live on every month every year.

The 10, 10, 80 principles are just a place for you to financially strive for. Realistically, most people, (Dede and I included) will not be able to just jump right in. You’ll have to start where you can start. You will have to make some cutbacks. You will have to eliminate unnecessary bills. You will have to take a stern look at your finances and stop wasteful spending. Your starting point may be 5, 5, 90 or 2, 5, 93 or 10, 5, 85. Any one is okay, but as you begin to practice God’s ways with your finances your finances will change. With each change or new level, God gives you the opportunity to prove to Him with your faithfulness.

At some point, you will be like Dede and I, bill free. You will have reached your 10, 10, 80 destination. But like all destinations there will be a next one. Your next destination may look like 15, 15, 70 or 15, 20, 65. The keys to all of this is to allow God to take you where He wishes you to go and believe that He will provide everything that you need.

In closing, you are not alone, many others just like you are taking the steps to their financial freedom and living the 10, 10, 80 principles. Please feel free to contact me if you need advice and prayer on how to start your journey.

PastorKeith@NewBeginningsChurch.love

For more information, contact New Beginnings Church at 925.727.2187 or admin@newbeginningschurch.love